Mother's Day Feelings

മലയാളം: Red rose (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mother’s Day is filled with mixed feelings for women as well as men. Contrary to popular belief, men also get emotional on Mother’s Day. Some have lost their mothers. Others do not know who their mother is. Some love their mothers, while others hate their mother.

 Many of the women that I know feel abandon, abused, and neglected by their mothers. All of these things can affect the way you feel about Mother’s Day. For those of you being abused, if possible get away from the abuse. This will help now. For the other bad things, the help comes from forgiving them.

Hating your mother is a nature feeling. However, this feeling will eat and eat at you. Yes, I said, “You”. What and how you feel is not transferred to your mother. It only affects you.

 You may ask, “How do you know this?”

 I lived with an abusive mother for many years. On Mother’s Day, she was doing things that made her happy. She did not care how I felt. I on the other hand, I was upset and having a horrible day. So, “who was hurt?”

 Now, please be a good mother. You are not your mother. You have choices. Please make the right ones. Remember, you do not have to like what has been done to you, but you have to forgive those that did it. That will help you feel better and you are the one that matters.

 Remember that the Bible says, “Although my father and my mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child]” (Psalms 27:10 amp). 

 

Have a Happy Mother’s Day!

This was written by Karen

A good article to read is found at http://www.bibleabookoftruth.com/forsakenbyparentsadoptedbygod.pdf.

Mardi Gras: What is it?

Image via Wikipedia

It is the time of the year when Mardi Gras is being celebrated. Here in Baton Rouge, LA, it is a holiday that many people celebrate with great zeal. I was not born or raised here in Baton Rouge, LA. I was born and raised in Mississippi. In that part of Mississippi, we do not really recognize Mardi Gras as a holiday that is greatly celebrated. I understand that on the Gulf Coast they do have some celebrations. I really did not understand the point of Mardi Gras. Therefore, I have done a little bit of research into the origins of Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras started out in Rome as a pagan celebration. Mardi Gras was originally called Lupercalia. Having never heard of that pagan celebration, I looked in an online encyclopedia  to find out information about the celebration.

According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Lupercalia is an “ancient Roman festival held annually on Feb. 15. The ceremony of the festival was intended to secure fertility and keep out evil. Two male youths, clad in animal skin, ran around the city slapping passersby with strips of goat skin. Because the youths impersonated male goats (the embodiment of sexuality), the ceremony was believed to be in honor of Faunus . The festival survived into Christian times and was not abolished until the end of the 5th cent.”

Later when the Christians brought Christianity to Rome, they decided not to completely abolish all of the pagan rituals. This ritual was turned into a time of Pre-Lent celebration. The people would have carnival style fun before the day of Lent.

Later the French explorer, Iberville, brought the celebration of Mardi Gras to Louisiana when he came in 1699.

For more information on how the customs of Mardi came to be go to http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm.

After reading the information, I still do not understand why Christians celebrate Mardi Gras with such zeal. It really does not have any good spiritual signification in my opinion, because it started out as a fertility ritual to a pagan god. Also they changed it to a time of merry-making before that went into a time of abandonment. This abandonment is suppose to be a time of denying something that you really want in order to grow in your walk with God.

Citations:
1. "Lupercalia." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 20 Feb. 2012 .